1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical recording apparatuses, optical recording methods, and digital still cameras for recording data on recording media by utilizing a laser beam, and more particularly relates to an optical recording apparatus, an optical recording method, and a digital still camera for controlling a session closing in order to enable a reading apparatus to read data written in a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disc recording media (hereinafter referred to as optical discs), such as compact discs (CDs), which utilize optical mark reading have a large storage capacity and can be accessed randomly. Since optical mark reading is contactless, it does not involve risks such as head crashes and abrasion and damage caused by reading, compared with contact type recording media, such as magnetic tapes. Because the surface of a disc is robust, the risk of accidentally losing data is low. Accordingly, optical discs have many advantages and are suitable as computer peripheral memory and recording media in which data can be created and stored reliably.
Recently, read-write apparatuses which utilize a so-called CD-R (compact disc-recordable), which is a write-once optical disc, have been developed. Among CD-R's, there is one type of CD-R in which data is easily written in accordance with all standard formats used in compact discs such as CD-ROM (compact disc read only memory), CD-ROM/XA (CD-ROM extended architecture), CD-I (compact disc interactive), and CD-DA (compact disc digital-audio). In place of conventional magnetic tapes and magnetic discs, CD-R's are installed in electronic apparatuses and are used as media from and/or to which data is read and/or written.
Since data to be recorded is written to a CD-R in an incremental manner, table of contents (TOC) information, which is recorded on the disc inner perimeter of a CD-ROM or the like, cannot be written when the CD-R is still in a recordable state.
In other words, no finalization (session closing) is performed until it becomes impossible to write any more data to the CD-R. Subsequently, the TOC information, which is index information for the recording medium, is written.
When no finalization is performed, that is, when the CD-R is in a recordable state, the start position for writing data and the recorded position for reading data can be detected by referring to a provisional TOC written in a program memory area (PMA) of the recording medium. A CD-ROM drive cannot read the provisional TOC written in the PMA, and hence it is impossible for the CD-ROM drive to read a write-once recording medium which is not finalized. In order to enable the CD-ROM drive to read the write-once recording medium, it is necessary to perform finalization.
Referring to FIG. 12, a finalization process (session closing process) performed by a conventional recording apparatus is described.
In response to an instruction by the user to perform session closing, in step S41, the process reads information concerning written areas including provisional TOC information from a PMA of a recording medium.
In step S42, the process creates a normal TOC based on the information on the written areas.
In step S43, the process embeds zero in a lead-out area.
In step S44, the process writes the normal TOC in a lead-in area. When the writing is completed, the session closing is completed.
In session closing, a 23.5-Mbyte user data area is consumed by writing the lead-in area and lead-out area according to the standard.
Concerning conventional recording apparatuses, finalization of a write-once recording medium enables a CD-ROM drive to read the write-once recording medium.
When performing session closing in which session-closing data is written to a recording medium, a regular single-speed recording apparatus requires approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds for closing a first session and approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds for closing second and subsequent sessions.
When performing session closing, a conventional recording apparatus has to record a large amount of data, especially when performing session closing for the first time. It therefore requires a long period of time to perform session closing.
A shock or vibration to the recording apparatus during session closing may cause the recording apparatus to fail in session closing. When the recording apparatus fails in session closing, it is difficult for the recording apparatus to retry session closing. Due to a failure in session closing, it may become impossible to read data recorded on the recording medium.